GRIM FIGHTING

Wairarapa Age, 15 February 1934, Page 5

GRIM FIGHTING

BRAVE STAND BY AUSTRIAN SOCIALISTS.

STRUGGLE STILL IN PROGRESS AT MANY POINTS. MORE LEADERS ARRESTED. (Received Wednesday, 7 p.m.) VIENNA, February 13. Despite being sprayed by ma-chine-guns and bombarded by artillery, the Socialists held on grimly in a number of places, notably Ottakring, Semmering, Favoreten, Hernals and Floridsdorf and also are making some headway in the provinces. It is believed that at least five hundred were killed and thousands wounded.

Fighting broke out on Tuesday afternoon at Tostlingberg, near Linz, where miners armed to aid the Socialists.

Those arrested at Vienna include Dr. Renner, ex-President of Parliament and General Koerner, head of the Socialist Defence Corps. Dr. Seitz deposed the Socialist Mayor of Vienna, Herr Breitner, an ex-Financial Secretary of the municipality. A British journalist, despite the danger of being shot by both sides, visited Ottakring and found, men in shabby civilian' clothes, with dirty rifles, in doorways and windows. They greeted him with handshakes and were glad of an opportunity of explaining the position. They admitted that things were going badly and that they lacked food and ammunition. The journalist adds that it is impossible not to admire the heroism of the men, who are still facing the Government’s strength, despite a realisation that their chances of success are slight.

By midnight, the troops, who had lost twenty-seven men, cleaned up the garden city of Floridsdorf. MANACLES AND CHAINS. PRISONERS DISPLAYED BY BOTH SIDES. STERN MEASURES ADOPTED BY GOVERNMENT. (Received Wednesday, 7.29 p.m.) VIENNA, February 13. Some Socialists escaped through underground cellars and joined their comrades in the suburbs. A majority, however, were manacled, and marched to prison, being prodded with bayonets if they tarried. The Socialists in revenge similarly treated captured police, as they were taken in chains through the streets.

It was officially announced by the Government that a Court-Martial would try the first eight offenders who fired on the police under martial law and that those convicted would be hanged immediately. No unemployment dole is to be paid during the week and concern is felt over food supplies. The Socialists hold the bakeries and slaughter-houses and threaten to starve the capital. Lower Austria is almost denuded of troops, creating an opportunity for a dangerous outbreak against the Government, which may face a crisis today if the rebellion in Vienna is not subdued.

During the fighting in the Embassy region, women dropped burning coals on the heads of Heimwehr massing in the shelter of a block of flats. The Heimwehr captured a Socialist stronghold in the Quellestrasse with six machine guns and a hundred rifles. It is alleged that Schutzbunders in the provinces fired on troops and police under cover of ths white flag. It is denied that part of the Fifth Infantry Regiment deserted and stated that the whole Army is loyal. It is officially stated that thirty-seven regulars were killed during last night's attack on Floridsdorf, where Count Schoenburg Hartenstein, State Secretary for Defence, conducted the operations. The city was quiet throughout the night, but fighting is expected at certain points to-day. TROOPS MAKE HEADWAY. SOCIALISTS DRIVEN OUT OF POSITION. (Received Wednesday, 7.20 p.m.) LONDON, February 14. “The Times” Vienna correspondent states that the Socialists were driven out during the evening, from the St. Marx slaughterhouse and retired to the country where they have entrenched and will be attacked to-morrow. Prince Starhemberg arrived at Steyr and asked for reinforcements and a mechanised battery. Dr. Seitz is critically ill. Suffering from a stroke due to the strain of the strike, he collapsed. Workers are going quietly to their tasks except where they are prevented by fighting.—(“Times” Cable). HEAVY CASUALTIES. POSSIBLY ONE THOUSAND DEAD. (Received Wednesday, 7.p.m.) LONDON, February 14. Though the Austrian Govern- , ment is withholding casualty lists, telephone accounts state that eight hundred to one thousand were killed in Tuesday’s fighting. The “Berliner Tageblatt” reports that sections of the Fifth Austrian Infantry Regiment deserted to the Socialists and adds that the Austrian radio stations have been silent since two in the afternoon, but the Bourse is still confident and the fact that the railways are still running is regarded as a good sign.

ORDER RESTORED. ACCORDING TO OFFICIAL STATEMENT. LONDON, February 13. The Austrian Legation announces officially that order has been almost fully restored throughout the country. Fighting has ceased in Vienna, except at Floridsdorf. The authorities unearthed a large depot of arms and munitions at Favoriten. Reports of the casualties are exaggerated. It is officially estimated that between sixty and seventy have been killed. BRITISH LABOUR. SYMPATHY WITH AUSTRIAN SOCIALISTS. (Received Wednesday, 7 p.m.) LONDON, February 14. The Labour Party and Trades Union Congress state that the necessity of defending Austrian independence against Hitlerism has been made an excuse for destroying the liberty and parliamentary democracy of the Austrian working class, which is determined not to go down into slavery without a fight. British Labour appeals for subscriptions to aid this determination. The Independent Labour Party has sent messages of sympathy to Socialists in Vienna, Paris, and Madrid, asserting that British Socialists would resist the advance of Fascism in England. GARDEN QTY BATTLE. ASSAULT ON FLORIDSDORF. > NAZIS BIDING THEIR TIME. (Received Wednesday, 11 p.m.) LONDON, February 14. The “Daily Express” Vienna correspondent reports that the siege of the Socialists stronghold of Floridsdorf at sunset was a memorable spectacle. ‘'Behind me,” he writes, “glowed the hills. Below whirled the Danube. Before me loomed the towering workers’ apartment block where shells were exploding in the turretlike roofs, which harboured nests of machine-guns. Socialist outposts returned the fire from garden outhouses near the Danube. I saw two civilians fall, struck by bullets. While crossing the bridge, I passed officers’ cars with smashed windscreens. The grey lines of troops fell back, while pioneers built pontoon bridges over the marshes in order to attack the Socialists in rear. Municipal firemen joined the Socialists and converted heavy steel dustcarts into tanks, equipped with machine-guns. The Socialists seized the local railway station and shot the Chief of Police dead. The Nazis continue strict neutrality. Observers are of opinion that they are bidding their time, hoping that the Socialists will be defeated and that then the Dollfuss Government wiH be so discredited, owing to the bloodshed, that the Nazi task of assuming power will be made easy. The Austrian Navy, consisting of one river monitor, used its light guns on Floridsdorf and aided in the reduction of that stronghold.” REPLY TO ULTIMATUM. WORKERS THREATEN TO (BLOW UP GASWORKS. HEAVY FIGHTING NEAR LINZ. (Received Wednesday, 11.45 p.m.) VIENNA, February 14. Socialist workers holding the city’s principal freplying to the Government’s ultimatum demanding their surrender, threatened that if the troops fired, the workers would blow themselves and everything else to eternity. The troops are ordered by their officers to use every means to beat down ruthlessly all resistance. Heavy fighting is reported south of Linz. The Socialists hold Urfahr, a suburb of Linz, on the opposite side of the Danube and have placed ma-chine-gun posts to command two bridges. Troops and auxiliaries are coming from Lower Austria to relieve Gendarmene at the headquarters at Kapfenberg, who have been besieged by the Socialists since February 12. DOLFUSS CRITICISED. FAILURE IN LEADERSHIP & ORGANISATION. TRIUMPH OF SOCIALISTS UNLIKELY. LONDON, February 13. The “Daily Mail',”' in a leader, says that, though Dr. Dollfuss has shown Indomitable courage in crushing the Socialist conspiracy, he has not displayed the brilliant qualities or organisation and leadership that Hitler did against German Socialism. The Socialists, however, are not likely to triumph in Austria, where the victory would be a blow to European stability. Berlin newspapers bitterly attack Dr. Dollfuss’s “inept rule.” “The Times” Paris correspondent says that Austria’s appeal to the League comes at a most embarrasing moment. It was hoped in some quarters that Dr. Dollfuss would defer action